Beyond Natural, Pt. 1

This morning, NPR reported that the FDA pronounced salmon from a "natural" fish farming operation free from melamine, the contaminant that recently showed up in pet foods, resulting in many deaths of dogs and cats. That's good for consumers of farm raised salmon (and that's most of us who order salmon in restaurants), but what really interested me about the story was the farm operator's claim to produce "natural" Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound on pellets tossed into large holding pens.

The difference, Miller [the operator] said, is the feed.

"In the natural feed there is no land animal protein. So all the protein sources come from either vegetable or fish," he said.

Miller said the theory is that since wild salmon eat fish, farmed salmon should eat feed made from fish.

In fact, the fish dine on a mixture of anchovy, herring, wheat, soybeans and corn. I suppose that is an improvement over pork bone meal, but would Atlantic salmon "naturally" consume soybeans?

Maybe, as is the case with many midwesterners, their tastes change once they move to Seattle.

To his credit, the fish farmer readily admits "natural farmed salmon" is a vague concept.

"This is kind of a (fish) diet that we made up. Because there are no criteria for what should be in the 'natural' or 'organic' diets," he said.

This is a problem with all kinds of foods seeking the "natural" or "organic" label. Critics have pointed out many ironies and inconsistencies in our ideas of "natural" food, though the one that the salmon story brings to mind is that the naturalness of many designated natural foods derives from certain techniques of cultivation and processing--from kinds of artifice. And in some cases, the cirmcumstances of producing natural items or ingredients, no matter how sustainable or chemical-free, may be themselves be stunningly articifical or contrived--Atlantic salmon eating soy-enhanced pellets in Puget sound, say, or tomatoes growing, thanks to giant dams, in what was once known as the Colorado desert. Conventionally, "natural" refers to things that form or exist without human interventions. I think this is generally a good definition, but how far can we legitimately apply it to food we don't actually gather or kill ourselves? And should we worry about that?

(To be Continued)